Machine for severing, printing and stacking ticket strips



April 1, 1958 E. H. MUDE MACHINE FOR SEVERING, PRINTING AND STACKINGTICKET STRIPS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 15, 1953 ATTORNEYS April 1,1958' E. H. MUDE MACHINE FOR SEVERING, PRINTING AND STACKING TICKETSTRIPS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 15, 1953 INVENTOR.

' ERNEST HENRY MUDE FIG. 3.

MACHlNE non sEvninNG, PRINTING AND STACKING rreknr srnrrs Ernest HenryMude, Kingsbury, London, England, as-

sign'or to GeneralRegister Corporation, Long Island vCity, N. Y., acorporation of New York Application April 15', 1953, Serial No. 349,034

.7 Claims. (Cl. 101-66) More specifically, it is an object of theinvention to provide a ticket issuing machine which comprises incombination means for feeding a ticket strip through a machine inpredetermined successive lengths, means for severing each of thesuccessive lengths from the strip,

means for receiving the leading end of each of the lengths of the stripas it is severed and thereafter printing requisite data thereupon, meansfor receiving the leading end of the printed lengths of the strip duringthe printing operation and for feeding them to a stacker after theprinting operation has been completed, and means for presenting thestacked pile of tickets to a purchaser after a predetermined number oftickets have been printed and stacked.

The invention will be more particularly described with reference to theaccompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 illustrates in side elevation a machine constructed inaccordance with the present invention with the side plate thereofremoved;

.Figure 2 illustrates in detail the mechanism'for controlling the numberof tickets fed to the stacking mechanism; and

Figure 3 illustrates in detail the mechanism for feeding the individualtickets to the stacking device.

Referring to Figure l of the drawings, there is provided a ticketissuing machine which comprises in combination rollers 1 and 2 forfeeding a predetermined length of paper from a strip 3 thereof, a knife4 and a block 5 for severing the said length of paper from the strip,roller 7 and printing dies 6 for receiving the leading end of the saidlength as it is severed and printing requisite data thereon, and rollers9 and 10 for receiving the leading end of said printed length of paperand, after the printing operation on the paper has been completed,feeding'the same to a stacker member 11 and pressure plate 12.

The structure and general operation of the machine are as follows:

A pinion 32 is driven by an electric motor 32. The motor is energizedupon the actuation of key 13. Depression of the key 13 depresses thelever 51 and moves the arm 52 in a clockwise direction closing contacts52' energizing the motor circuit in a conventional manner. The pinion 32is arranged in mesh with a pinion 14 adapted to drive a pinionoperatively connected to and positioned behind a printing drum 15 asviewed in Figure 1 which carries dies 6, 6' and 8, 8' so disposed uponthe printing drum so as to print an impression upon a length severedfrom the strip 3 when the said length passes between the dies 6, 6 andS, 8 and the impression roller 7. Mounted so as to rotate with theprinting drum is a plate 16 which carries a pin 17 arranged to engageonce in every revolution of the printing drum with 2. Geneva i StatesPatent "11 and 12.

mechanism 13 so as to rotate a pinion 19 through one quarter of itsperiphery, which is equivalent to a complete rotation of a grippingroller 9. Thus, the gripping roller 9 is maintained in the positionillustrated in Figure 1 for the remainder of the rotation of theprinting drum and particularly while the dies 6, 6' and 8, 8 areprinting upon the severed length of the strip 3. The disposition of thefiat 21 on the gripping roller is such that it facilitates the feedingof the leading end of the length into the stacker 11 and 12 and insuresthat when the printing operation is completed the trailing edge 22 ofthe flat 21 grips the length between it and the roller 10 and feeds thelength, which is now The stacking mechanism comprises an open-endedtrough 11 of rectangular cross-section and a yieldingly mounted pressureplate 12 pivotally mounted upon a spindle 23 fixed to trough 11 andarranged so as to bear in response to the urging of a spring 12' coiledaround the spindle 23 and acting between the plate 12 and a spindle 23fixed to the trough 11 against any ticket issued by the gripping roller9 and the roller 10 and so retain the ticket in the stacker as shown inFigure 3. The stacker is carried upon an arm 24 pivoted upon spindle 25in a bracket 26 mounted upon the machine. The arm 24 is provided with adownwardly extending plate 27 which carries at the free end thereof aroller 28 which bears against the surface of a cam 29 so designed thatwhen the desired number of tickets have been printed and ejected intothe stacker the cam 29 permits the plate 27 to move in a clockwisedirection under the influence of a spring 30 and so raise the stackerupwardly in a shield 31 so that the severed tickets extend from the freeend of said shield to permit the purchaser to remove them from thestacker. It will be appreciated that while the stacker is in itslowermost position a purchaser cannot take hold of the tickets.

The pinion 32 in addition to meshing with the pinion 14 carries afurther pinion 33 which meshes with a pinion 34 which carries thegripping member 1 in such a manner that for once in every revolution ofthe printing drum the gripping member 1 and the interengaging roller 2grip the strip 3 and feed the same through a channel 35 and a severingdevice by a length equivalent to one ticket. During one completerevolution of the pinion 32 a roller 101 attached thereto moves thepivoted shoe 102 in a counterclockwise direction. The upper end of theshoe 102 is forked to engage the circular end 103 of a bellcrank leverpivotally mounted on a spindle 66. The bell crank lever 65 carries apillar 67, the upper end of which supports and moves the knife 4 so thatwhen a strip equivalent to the length of a ticket has been fed by thefeeding mechanism 1 and 2, the knife member 4 of the guillotine isoperated to sever the leading end of the strip from the strip 3. Furtherrotation of the pinion 32 causes the roller 101 to engage the arm 104 ofthe lever 65 which rocks the said lever about its pivot 66 in a counterclockwise direction, moving the knife 4 clear of the paper strip.

It will be appreciated from the general description set out above thatwhen the machine is operated the gripping member 1 together with theroller 2 feeds the strip 3 forwardly by an extent equivalent to thelength of one ticket. The leading end of the web 3 is then grippedbetween the printing dies 6, 6' and 8, 8 and the impression roller 7 andat the same time the guillotine 4 and 5 is operated so as to sever thelength of material from the strip equivalent to one ticket. The ticketis fed by the printing dies 6, 6' and 8, 3' and the impression roller 7upwardly through the channel 38. Due to the fact that the flat 21 on thegripping roller 9 is disposed in the Patented Apr. 1,

a printed ticket, into the stacker position illustrated in Figure l theleading end of the tickets is unimpeded and passes freely between therollers 9 and 10. When the ticket has been fully printed the Genevamechanism 18 comes into operation so as to cause the trailing edge 22 ofthe flat 21 to grip the ticket which is released by the printing die 8'and the impression roller 7, and feed it between the wall of the stacker11 and the yieldably mounted pressure plate 12.

The printing drum upon which the printing dies 6, 6' and 8, 8 aremounted carries, as is clearly illustrated in Figure 2, an arm 39 at thefree end of which are formed two teeth 40 adapted to engage with theteeth of a pinion wheel 41 so as to rotate the same a distanceequivalent to one tooth for each complete rotation of the printing drum.The printing dies 6, 6 and 8, 8' are omitted from the showing in Figure2 for the purpose of clarity. The pinion 41 carries a second pinion 42arranged to engage with a pinion 43 which in turn meshes with a pinion44 operable to engage with a pinion 45 which engages with a pinion 46upon which is mounted two lobes 47 disposed l80 apart.

With the arrangement hereinbefore described, it is such that foreachrotation of the printing drum the pinion 46 rotates through 36, thusinsuring that at each fifth revolution of the printing drum the lobe 47is brought into a position in which it engages with a pin 48 of a disc49 adapted to carry a plate 50.

When a key 13 of the ticket issuing machine is depressed one arm 51 islowered and the other arm 52 is moved in a clockwise direction to move arod 53 to the left, as viewed in Figure l. The rod 53 carries at one endthereof a pin 54 arranged to bear against one arm 55 of a bell cranklever pivotally mounted at 56 and thereby move the other arm 57 of thebell crank lever in a counterclockwise direction so as to move a pin 58out of engagement with the lower end of the plate 50 which under theinfluence of a spring 59 is moved in a counterclockwise direction untilthe projection 60 bears against the pin 61. In such a position a pin 62on a bar 63 is free to move in the longitudinal direction of the saidbar in view of the fact that an abutment 64 on the free end of the arm57 of the bell crank lever has been moved out of the path of the pin 62.Such being the case the bar 63 pivotally connected at 107 to the lever106 is free to be moved in a longitudinal direction by the torsionspring 105 rotating the lever 106 in a: clockwise direction around apivot 105'. Rotation of the lever 106 in a clockwise direction bringsthe roller 37 mounted on the lower end of the lever 106 into engagementwith cam 36. The bar 63 is now free to be moved to the left as viewed inFigure 1 by the rise of the cam 36 and to be moved to the right asviewed in Figure 1 by the action of the spring 195 when the roller 37passes over the fall of the cam 36.

When the machine has issued five tickets one of the lobes 47 engageswith the pin 4-8 and moves the disc 49 in a clockwise direction topermit the pin 58 to rise behind the lower end of the plate 56 andthereby bring the abutment 64 up into the path of the pin 62 on the endof the bar 63 when the bar 63 is moved to the right by the action of cam36. Movement of the machine is then arrested by the lower end of the bar68 carried by the lever 106 engaging with a shoulder 69 formed on aplate 70 mounted on the pinion 32 and preventing further rotation of thepinion 32.

In view of the fact that the cam 29 on the printing drum rotates oncefor every ticket printed and further in view of the fact that it isdesired that the stacker trough 11 should be held at the lower end ofthe shield 31 means are provided whereby the roller 28 is held so thatthe stacker is in its lowermost position during the period that livetickets are issuing into the stacker.

The mechanism which permits this operation comprises a link 71 pivotallymounted at one end to the plate 5t: and at the other end to an arm 72 ofa bell crank lever, the

other arm 73 of which is provided with a tooth 74 arranged to engagewith a tooth 75 mounted on the plate 27 so that when the cam 29 movesthe roller 28 into its extreme right hand position as viewed in Figure 1the tooth 74 engages with the teeth 75 to lock the stacker trough 11 inits depressed position and is only released therefrom when the plate Sitis released by one of the lobes 47. When the stacker is released itmoves together with the five tickets upwardly in the shield 31 and thefree ends of the five tickets are presented to the vendor above theupper end of the bar 31 in a position which is believed will be evidentby viewing the positions of the stacker through 11 in Figures 1 and 3.

Although the machine hereinbcfore described specifically relates to amachine which delivers five tickets at a time it will be appreciatedthat other numbers of tickets may be issued at a time, for example, ifonly one lobe 47 instead of two diametrically disposed lobes is providedthe machine will then automatically deliver ten tickets at a time.

Thus, it will be seen that according to the present invention there isprovided a machine which is simple in its construction, efficient in itsoperation which automatically insures that a predetermined number ofsevered tickets are delivered to a stacker for each operation of themachine.

What is claimed is:

1. A ticket issuing machine comprising means for feeding successivepredetermined lengths of a ticket strip through the machine, means forsuccessively severing the predetermined lengths of the strip, means forstacking successive severed lengths of the strip in superimposedrelation, means for feeding the severed lengths of the strip into thestacker, locking means for blocking further operation of the stripfeeding means after the predetermined number of severed lengths of striphave been fed to the stacker, manually operated means for holding thelocking means in an inoperative position and initiating the operation ofthe machine, and means including a lobe carried by a pinion rotatablethrough an angle dependent upon the number of lengths of strip delivered7 for releasing the locking means after a predetermined number oflengths of the strip have been fed through the machine.

2. A ticket issuing machine comprising means for receiving and stackingsuccessive severed printed lengths of ticket strip, an open endedenclosure, an open ended member positioned within said enclosure forreceiving said successive severed lengths of ticket strip, a yieldingpressure plate for holding said lengths of ticket strip in superimposedrelation against said member and means for dis placing said memberwithin said enclosure for exposing the leading ends of a stack oflengths of strip in superimposed relation after the stack has beenaccumulated.

3. A ticket issuing machine comprising means for stacking tickets andmeans for feeding successive severed printed lengths of ticket strip tosaid stacking means, said stacking means including shielding means, anopen ended member for receiving said successive severed lengths ofticket strip, a yielding pressure plate for holding said lengths ofticket strip in superimposed relation against said member and means forpositioning said member in a stationary position located to receivesevered lengths of ticket strip from said feeding means during thefeeding of a plurality of lengths of ticket strip and to thereafterposition said member with respect to said shielding means to expose theleading ends of the stack of said accumulated lengths of strip.

4. A ticket issuing machine comprising means for feeding a predeterminednumber of successive predetermined lengths of ticket strip through themachine, means for successively severing the predetermined number oflengths of the strip, means for receiving the leading ends of the isuccessive lengths as they are severed and printing requisite data onthe severed lengths, means for stacking the successive printed severedlengths of the strip, means for receiving the leading ends of thesuccessive lengths as they are printed and feeding the successivelengths to the stacker, and means operating after the predeterminednumber of lengths have been stacked, for presenting the stackedpredetermined number of lengths for removal from the machine.

5. A ticket issuing machine comprising means for feeding a predeterminednumber of successive predetermined lengths of ticket strip through themachine in response to a single actuation of a single machine operationinitiating means, means for successively severing the predeterminednumber of lengths of the strip, means for receiving the leading ends ofthe successive lengths as they are severed and printing requisite dataon the severed lengths, means for stacking the successive printedsevered lengths of the strip, means for receiving the leading ends ofthe successive lengths as they are printed and feeding the successivelengths to the stacker, and means operating after the predeterminednumber of lengths have been stacked, for presenting the stackedpredetermined number of lengths for removal from the machine.

6. A ticket issuing machine comprising means for feeding a predeterminednumber of successive predetermined lengths of a ticket strip through themachine, means for successively severing the predetermined number oflengths of the strip, control means including a printing roller forsuccessively receiving the leading end of each of the severed lengths ofthe strip and successively printing requisite data on the predeterminednumber of lengths received, means for stacking successive printedsevered lengths of the strip in superimposed relation, means forsuccessively feeding the printed severed lengths of the strip into thestacker, locking means responsive to rotation of the printing roller forblocking further operation of the strip feeding means, severing meansand printing roller after the predetermined number of lengths of striphave been fed to the stacker, and manually operated means for moving thelocking means to an inoperative position and initiating the operation ofthe machine.

7. Apparatus in accordance with claim 6 wherein the manual meansincludes means for releasing the locking means after the predeterminednumber of lengths of the strip have been fed through the machine.

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